Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had some pretty important questions about this item before I bought it and had trouble finding the answers. I'd like to start this review by going over them and what answers I found after open the box and getting hands-on with this cooler. I'll also upload a few images that explain a bit more than the pressers on the Amazon page. It installed fine in an Antec P-280 case, except the logo is upside-down if you want the wires facing away from your RAM and don't want clearance issues with the hose side of the radiator and the back of the case. So I have the radiator hoses on the right heading down and the pump/block I have the hoses to the left making the logos on both the radiator and pump upside-down (only way this was going to fit in this case). This isn't a problem with the unit per-se, so no stars can be deducted. 1. How long are the cables? The Fan/Pump wires: These head straight out of the "side" of the cooler on the side that has the two hoses. The 3-pin wire that goes to the motherboard is 11" long. The 4-pin wire that goes to the fans on the radiator are 12" long and it has two connectors, placed in-line, on the end. Neither of these seem to be socketed on the block side and are permanently attached. The fans themselves have an extra 12" of wire so there is ample wire there in total to do many things to hide them. The USB: The USB connection that is part of the "Corsair Link" feature is 27" from end to end, laid flat. I'd say it is a usable 24" given that you'll need a bend at the motherboard end. One end is a motherboard style header block, the other is a 90 degree USB mini. When the 90 degree USB mini end is plugged into the cooler the rest of the USB wire heads off in the same direction as the permanently attached wires for the fans and the motherboard fan header. 2. How heavy is this thing? The radiator, with the fans installed is the weight of 2 hard drives. The pump/CPU block is the weight of 1 hard drive. Over all it is way lighter than it looks (which is a good thing). 3. What about the thermal paste? The thermal paste seems roughly the same as the stuff that came on the stock Intel heatsink. The provided paste is applied already to the bottom of the block in a circle. It is fairly easy to scrape off with an old credit card. I will be using Arctic Silver 5 for my install. The finish on the bottom of the block is as good or better than the stock Intel cooler. 4. Now whats the word on the hoses? They are fairly stiff with very little give on the radiator end. They rotate on the block end enough to permit installation, but I wouldn't test their rotational durability beyond that. They seem to be sized well in length for a radiator mounted on the top, but few if any cases are proportioned right to have this as a front-mount. They recommend mounting the fans in an intake configuration, but up top that doesn't make perfect sense. You'll be fighting convection that way and will require more airflow to keep the ambient temp in the case lower. More fans/airflow equals more noise. Intake configuration would give you a little more cooler air to work with, but I'm always on the side of getting heat out of a case as fast and efficient as possible. 5. Screws man, tell me about them screws! The hardware provided is good. The radiator has threaded holes for mounting the radiator to the case and the fans to the radiator. Just be sure to not cross thread these as the radiator seems to be entirely aluminum and the thickness of the threaded holes is only 2-3mm and could easily be stripped by a strong hand on a screw driver or a cross threaded screw. The block attachment thumb screws are a "black chrome" finish and are quite easy to get started and feel very sturdy when in place. 6. This has to be loud. Yes you can hear it running no problem. The pump has a distinct noise to it that can be heard over the rest of the fans I have. My case is 3-4 feet away right now and I can definitely tell it is running (lowest pump speed right now, but no difference at top speed). Before I could barely tell it was running. The only way I would describe this as whisper quiet is if I had a few 120mm fans running above 1500rpm. I expected this and it doesn't matter to me as this is in my gaming rig and I'll be wearing a headset. If you are thinking about using this in a Home Theater or entertainment PC in that realm, skip it. This will bug you. After thinking about how Corsair has built this for a little bit there are a few "improvements" that I'd make if I was on Corsair's engineering dept. 1. I would have run the cabling for the radiator fans and the USB port under sleeves on the hoses and brought them out at the radiator. This would allow for alternate power sources (e.g. SATA connector) as I'm not a fan of driving two fans and a pump from one motherboard header. The system doesn't appear to be user-serviceable anyway so having the hoses and wires sleeved together isn't going to harm that. It would just make the entire package seem a little more "high end" (it already feels high-end, but this would "extend" this feeling). 2. If #1 was not an option I would have at least socketed the remaining wires on the block side. 3. I would have included two pump top plates with each having the logo flipped from each other. Or I would have designed it with a symmetrical logo plate that could be reverse by the user (on both the radiator and pump).